National indicators for observing ecosystem service change

Earth’s life-support systems are in rapid decline, yet we have few metrics or indicators with which to track these changes. The world’s governments are calling for biodiversity and ecosystem-service monitoring to guide and evaluate international conservation policy as well as to incorporate natural capital into their national accounts. The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has been tasked with setting up this monitoring system. Here we explore the immediate feasibility of creating a global ecosystem-service monitoring platform under the GEO BON framework through combining data from national statistics, global vegetation models, and production function models. We found that nine ecosystem services could be annually reported at a national scale in the short term: carbon sequestration, water supply for hydropower, and non-fisheries marine products, crop, livestock, game meat, fisheries, mariculture, and timber production. Reported changes in service delivery over time reflected ecological shocks (e.g., droughts and disease outbreaks), highlighting the immediate utility of this monitoring system. Our work also identified three opportunities for creating a more comprehensive monitoring system. First, investing in input data for ecological process models (e.g., global land-use maps) would allow many more regulating services to be monitored. Currently, only 1 of 9 services that can be reported is a regulating service. Second, household surveys and censuses could help evaluate how nature affects people and provides non-monetary benefits. Finally, to forecast the sustainability of service delivery, research efforts could focus on calculating the total remaining biophysical stocks of provisioning services. Regardless, we demonstrated that a preliminary ecosystem-service monitoring platform is immediately feasible. With sufficient international investment, the platform could evolve further into a much-needed system to track changes in our planet's life-support systems.     

Ensemble flood risk assessment in Europe under high end climate scenarios

At the current rate of global warming, the target of limiting it within 2 degrees by the end of the century seems more and more unrealistic. Policymakers, businesses and organizations leading international negotiations urge the scientific community to provide realistic and accurate assessments of the possible consequences of so called “high end” climate scenarios.This study illustrates a novel procedure to assess the future flood risk in Europe under high levels of warming. It combines ensemble projections of extreme streamflow for the current century based on EURO-CORDEX RCP 8.5 climate scenarios with recent advances in European flood hazard mapping. Further novelties include a threshold-based evaluation of extreme event magnitude and frequency, an alternative method to removing bias in climate projections, the latest pan-European exposure maps, and an improved flood vulnerability estimation.Estimates of population affected and direct flood damages indicate that by the end of the century the socio-economic impact of river floods in Europe is projected to increase by an average 220% due to climate change only. When coherent socio-economic development pathways are included in the assessment, central estimates of population annually affected by floods range between 500,000 and 640,000 in 2050, and between 540,000 and 950,000 in 2080, as compared to 216,000 in the current climate. A larger range is foreseen in the annual flood damage, currently of 5.3 B€, which is projected to rise at 20–40 B€ in 2050 and 30–100 B€ in 2080, depending on the future economic growth.     

嵌入式TCP/IP协议在接收机杜瓦性能参数监测系统中的应用

介绍了射电天文望远镜接收机杜瓦温度与真空度监测系统的设计,具体讨论了监测系统的硬件结构与嵌入式TCP/IP协议在该系统中的实现.针对目前大量使用8位微控制器的嵌入式系统,硬件主控系统芯片采用ATMEL公司生产的8位单片机ATmega16,网络控制芯片采用美国MICROCHIP公司生产的带SPI接口的独立以太网微控制器ENC28J60,设计实现了低成本、高效率、高稳定性的性能参数监测系统.对该系统进行测试分析、数据比对,测试结果表明该系统能够高效与PC机进行通信,PC机所接收到的温度值与标准数据的误差在±0.3 K范围内,接收到的真空值绝对误差在±10 ubar范围内,能够达到系统设计要求.     

Towards an operational use of space imagery for oil pollution monitoring in the Mediterranean basin: a demonstration in the Adriatic Sea

Studies of operational pollution carried out by European commission - Joint Research Centre in the Mediterranean Sea for the years 1999-2004 are briefly introduced. The specific analysis of the Adriatic Sea for the same period demonstrates that this area has been characterized by a relevant number of illegal discharges from ships. After setting the historical background of the project AESOP (aerial and satellite surveillance of operational pollution in the Adriatic Sea), the content, partners and aim of the project are presented. Finally, the results of the first phase of the AESOP project are presented. The results seem very encouraging. For the first time in the Adriatic, real time detection of oil spills in satellite images and an immediate verification by the Coast Guard has been undertaken. An exploratory activity has also been carried out in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana to use automatic information system (AIS) to identify the ships detected in the satellite images.     

Medium-term responses of rocky bottoms to sewage discharges from a deepwater outfall in the NE Atlantic

An investigation on the effects of deepwater outfall discharges on the status of rocky reef communities was carried out. The sanitation system was found to be an environmentally suitable option for the protection of those habitats situated in high energy coastal environments. Sediments occurring between the predominating rocky substrates showed low values of the fine fraction (<63microm) and organic matter content. In addition, high average concentrations of Cd, Hg and Zn were found in these sediments, though these values were similar to those registered in non-affected sites, far away from the outfall. On the other hand, those assemblages typical of hard substrates that settled near the outfall showed an increase in total richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates. Moreover, the average number of species of each taxonomic group, a good indicator of the maintenance of the previous trophic structure, only varied considerably over time at the rip-rap protection. In a global context, those changes were not directly related to the discharge disturbances, but to the natural variability or the successional processes occurring within those communities. Only communities dwelling in the rip-rap protection area were affected by the proximity of the discharges.     

河川径流遥感监测研究进展

河川径流参数是用于地表水资源评估、全球变化监测和生态环境保护的基础数据.现有的河川径流监测数据基于水文监测站点获取.近年来,受经济和政治原因的影响,全球水文监测站点在逐渐减少.随着全球变化研究对区域乃至全球水文监测数据需求的增加,监测站点有限及监测数据格式多样等问题逐渐凸显.过去15年,卫星遥感技术在河川径流监测领域的研究和应用实践,使上述问题的解决成为了可能.总结了河川径流遥感监测方法和技术研究进展,包括地基高低频雷达、航空航天雷达和多光谱卫星遥感监测3个方面;介绍了全球大型河川径流与湖泊水体动态监测重大应用成果及未来研究计划.指出在未来具有全天时、全天候,高时空分辨率,以及多水文要素探测能力遥感卫星发射之前,应充分利用遥感野外观测实验,完善河川径流监测技术方法,并综合应用已有高时空分辨率的多光谱和微波遥感数据,开展径流监测应用研究.     

监测技术在深基坑开挖工程中的应用

在深基坑的设计施工过程中,由于地质条件、荷载条件、材料性质、施工条件和外界其他条件的复杂影响,以及基于当前土压力计算理论和边坡计算模型的局限性,很难单纯从理论上预测工程中可能遇到的问题。所以在基坑的开挖施工中,对支护结构、基坑邻近建筑物、地下管线以及周围土体等在理论分析指导下有计划地监测,以此监测数据为依据,对基坑支护进行动态设计,是十分必要的。     

Spectral monitoring of moorland plant phenology to identify a temporal window for hyperspectral remote sensing of peatland

Recognising the importance of the timing of image acquisition on the spectral response in remote sensing of vegetated ecosystems is essential. This study used full wavelength, 350–2500 nm, field spectroscopy to establish a spectral library of phenological change for key moorland species, and to investigate suitable temporal windows for monitoring upland peatland systems. Spectral responses over two consecutive growing seasons were recorded at single species plots for key moorland species and species sown to restore eroding peat. This was related to phenological change using narrowband vegetation indices (Red Edge Position, Photochemical Reflectance Index, Plant Senescence Reflection Index and Cellulose Absorption Index); that capture green-up and senescence related changes in absorption features in the visible to near infrared and the shortwave infrared. The selection of indices was confirmed by identifying the regions of maximum variation in the captured reflectance across the full spectrum. The indices show change in the degree of variation between species occurring from April to September, measured for plant functional types. A discriminant function analysis between indices and plant functional types determines how well each index was able to differentiate between the plant functional groups for each month. It identifies April and July as the two months where the species are most separable. What is presented here is not one single recommendation for the optimal temporal window for operational monitoring, but a fuller understanding of how the spectral response changes with the phenological cycle, including recommendations for what indices are important throughout the year.     

The Deccan Trap – Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary connection; new 40Ar/39Ar ages and critical assessment of existing argon data pertinent to this hypothesis

The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (KPgB) was dated by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method herein from the western interior of North America at 65.48 ± 0.12 Ma (1σ), in good agreement with other recent published estimates. For the Deccan Traps, India, new argon ages as well as others available in the literature, are assessed for reliability based on (a) statistical reliability of plateau/isochron sections and (b) freshness of material dated utilizing the alteration index method. From tholeiitic lavas from the Composite Western Ghats Section (CWGS), only six ages are found to be reliable estimates of the time of crystallization. These ages along with the magnetic polarity of the lavas agree with the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS) at ∼67–64 Ma. Alkaline rocks from the Anjar area of Kutch, provide three reliable ages that suggest a hiatus in lava extrusion around KPgB. For the Rajahmundry basalts, the upper flow’s age defines its formation during chron 29n; a single age from the lower reversed polarity flow appears somewhat dichotomous when plotted against the GPTS. The reliable lava ages indicate the most voluminous (reversed polarity) sections of the CWGS were extruded at a time statistically indistinguishable from that of the KPgB. The Deccan Trap – KPgB faunal extinction hypothesis remains plausible, but must compete with the latest report, favoring a very close temporal connection (∼0.03 m.y.) between the Chixculub (Impact) Crater and the KPgB.     

关于地理国情监测职责分工的探讨

地理国情监测是新时期测绘地理信息部门对基础测绘工作的拓展和延伸,其跨行业、跨部门、跨学科、跨区域等特性,要求测绘地理信息部门必须完善各项工作机制,强化部门间横向合作、系统内纵向协作等机制建设,同时调动行业力量,全面配合地理国情监测的顺利开展。本文将在以往地理国情监测理论研究和实践的基础上,重点对监测、监督和监管3个阶段测绘地理信息部门及相关部门的任务分工和合作机制建设,各级测绘地理信息部门的职责分配和统筹规划、成果汇交与发布等协作机制建设,以及如何发挥企业在科技创新和地理国情监测任务实施方面的作用等开展一些初步分析和探索。